28 December 2018

On 8 January 1941, Josef Jakobs was sent from Hamburg to The Hague to complete his espionage training. In some of his initial statements to the MI5 officers in April 1941, Josef stated that he had stayed at the Hotel Central while in The Hague. In later statements, he corrected that information and said that while he had gone to the Hotel Central to listen to jazz music, he had stayed at the Hotel Zeben in Molenstraat. While at the Hotel Central, Josef had seen fellow spy, Karel Richter, who had stayed at the Hotel.

Hotel Central, Lange Poten 10, The Hague - circa 1888
(from If Then Is Now site)

Decades later, the Hotel Central and Hotel Zeben have altered much, and even though one cannot step back in time, one can still get a sense of what Josef and Karel would have experienced.

The Hague - Grand Hotel Central
In 1880, a hotel and the Grand Café du Passage were built in a neo-Renaissance style at Lange Poten 10, in the centre of The Hague. The building would seem to have been rather elaborate (garish perhaps?) based on the photographs.

The cafe had a covered shopping arcade with terraced tables on both sides (See the If Then Is Now site for more photos).

Former site of the House of Lords building circa 1977 - One
can see a cupola from the Hotel Central building in the background.
(from a video clip on Haagsefilmbank site)

In 1885, the Hague Passage was built and the name of the hotel was changed to Hotel Central, possibly to avoid confusion. The passage was two stories high and covered by a glass roof.

In 1906, the owners of the Hotel Central, the Zuid-Hollandsche Bierbrouwerij (ZHB) [South Holland Beer Brewery)], took over the House of Lords at Hofstraat 4 and started using it as a branch of the hotel. Apparently the ZHB owned a large number of hotels and cafes in The Hague and Amsterdam, a way to ensure a stable income.

The building in which the House of Lords was located existed as early as the 1500s, although the building only acquired the name “House of Lords” during the First World War from interned British officers. The building no longer exists but was located along the northeastern side of what is now the Hofplatz in The Hague (see Google Maps link in Post Script below).

In 1911/1912, the Hotel Central underwent a major renovation and by 1915, looked very different from its earlier “galleried” style - far more concrete, and much less "renaissance".

The Gustav Mahler website, has some fascinating pictures of the hotel, including interior shots as well as a menu and advertisements from the late 1930s.

The hotel also has a grim side-story. Gustav Mahler’s niece, Alma Marie Rose was an Austrian-Jewish violinist who, after escaping from Berlin to London in 1939, returned to occupied territory to earn money. She played in the Hotel Central’s cafe and restaurant in 1939 but, by 1943, had been deported to Auschwitz. She died in Auschwitz-Birkenau on 4 April 1944.

Today, if one strolls along the shopping promenande, one can still see remnants of the former Hotel Central’s former glory. It is rather eerie to consider that Josef Jakobs and Karel Richter may have sat within the hotel's opulent surroundings and listened to the music of Alma Marie Rose - all three destined to die before war’s end.

Hotel Central, Lange Poten 10, The Hague - circa 1932
(from If Then Is Now site)

As for the Hotel Zeben, which Josef claimed to have stayed at whilst in The Hague in January 1941, the building still exists at Molenstraat 26, and is still a hotel, albeit with a name change - Hotel Paleis.

The Hotel Paleis has a brief history of the building on their website:

“The monumental building has a rich history dating back to the 17th century, demonstrated by the many closed off secret passage ways that, back in the day, led to the nearby monastery and the old Catholic shelter. Famous Dutch author Louis Couperus frequently stayed here with his older sister and her husband who occupied the building at the end of the 19th century. Their large family and train of servants provided the inspiration for many stories that took place within the walls of the current Paleis Hotel.”

From Josef’s statements to the MI5 officers, we know that, on the days when he had wireless training, he was picked up by an Abwehr car on the street corner outside of the hotel, likely the intersection between Molenstraat and Oude Molenstraat. From there, it would have been a short drive to a flat in the Vondelstraat, where Josef and Karel Richter engaged in wireless training.

Today, Molenstraat is essentially a pedestrian street with the occasional delivery van to dodge. One can stand on the corner of Molenstraat and Ould Molenstraat and almost touch the past... but not quite. Perhaps an archives in The Hague has records from the Hotel Zeben. Rather like a needle in the haystack though! If only buildings could talk...

Post Script
I've added the locations to My Google Maps - further blog posts on other The Hague locations in the works.

24 December 2018

Two years ago, I wrote a blog post about the German Abwehr’s activities in Hamburg. Many of the agents sent to England from the Continent in 1940 and 1941 were run by spymaster Nikolaus Ritter from the Abwehr’s Ast Hamburg (Referat I Luft) offices. Early in my research into Josef Jakobs I discovered that he had also spent time in The Netherlands. In January 1941, Josef was sent to The Hague for additional wireless training and was ultimately sent to England from Schipol Aerodrome near Amsterdam. Karel Richter, too, spent time in The Hague and both he and Josef said that they had encountered at least one other spy destined for England during their time there.

The officers of MI5 were very interested in any information that Josef and Karel divulged about the Abwehr’s activities in The Netherlands. The fact that the two spies could be played off of each other in a game of one-upmanship generated a rich trove of information. Some of the information could be cross-referenced against data gleaned from other spies. Slowly, the MI5 officers built up a picture of the Abwehr’s activities and officers in The Netherlands. It wasn’t complete, by any means, but it was a start. The real question is: was any of the information shared by Josef and Karel accurate? And can we now verify some of that information?

We have, naturally, the declassified MI5 files on Josef Jakobs and Karel Richter, as well as other spies. There are, however, at least two other resources that can be held up to the light along with the MI5 files. I recently came across two Dutch books published in 2011 and 2016 which delve into the German Abwehr’s activities in the Low Countries.

Spionnen aan de achterdeur: De Duitse Abwehr in België 1936-1945 (2011) [Spies at the Back Door: The German Abwehr in Belgium 1936-1945]by Etienne Verhoeyen

The first is by Etienne Verhoeyen - Spionnen aan de achterdeuer: De Duitse Abwehr in België 1936-1945 - and tells the tale of the German Abwehr’s activities in Belgium during the Second World War.

Verhoeyen (born 1945) holds a degree in moral sciences (UGent, 1968). He has served as scientific assistant and editor of historical TV programs (including several about the Second World War). Verhoeyen has been an associate of CEGESOMA (Centre for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Society) for years. His favorite research field is the operation of intelligence services in Belgium between 1918 and 1950. He is the author of:

België in de Tweede Wereldoorlog: Het minste kwaad [Belgium in the Second World War: The Least Evil] (1990)

België bezet 1940-1944 [Belgium Occupied 1940-1944] (1993)

Spionnen aan de achterdeur: De Duitse Abwehr in België 1936-1945 (2011) [Spies at the Back Door: The German Abwehr in Belgium 1936-1945]

about 50 articles about various aspects of intelligence services in Belgium

While I haven’t purchased Verhoeyen’s book, I have been able to conduct a limited search of it via Google Books. I’ve come across several references to the German Abwehr’s activities in The Netherlands which have been helpful.

The second book is an unpublished manuscript by Frans Kluiters, an amateur historian who passed away in 2009. I use the term “amateur” with the utmost respect for although Kluiters was not an academically trained historian, his work is held in the highest regard by authorities in the field.

Kluiters was meticulous in basing his work on original source material and interviews. A biography of Kluiters on the NISA (Netherlands Intelligence Studies Association) site notes that, for Frans, “the facts must be based on sources and also checked, the publication must be as complete as possible, precise and concisely formulated.” Kluiters conducted much of his research at the National Archives in The Hague, London and Washington

Kluiters and Verhoeyen had partnered together to research and publish two books about the German Abwehr’s activities in The Netherlands (Kluiters) and Belgium (Verhoeyen). While Verhoeyen’s book had been published in 2011, Kluiters premature death in 2009 left the second part of the project hanging. Verhoeyen was able to bring Kluiter’s manuscript to completion and in 2016, it was published on the NISA website, freely available to everyone. The book comprises fifteen chapters and ten appendices all easily downloadable and searchable in pdf format. With the assistance of Google Translate, I was able to focus on key sections of the manuscript and extract items of interest regarding the Abwehr’s activities in The Hague that intersected with the lives of Josef Jakobs and Karel Richter.

Kluiters also published an earlier book in 1993 (with a supplement in 1995): De Nederlandse inlichtingen- en veiligheidsdiensten [The Dutch Intelligence and Security Services] but I have not yet been able to track down a copy.

Over the next few blog posts, I plan to examine in greater detail some key locations and Abwehr personnel associated with training espionage agents in The Hague.

19 December 2018

During research for a few recent blog posts, I’ve been reviewing Guy Liddell’s diaries, the original documents from The National Archives at Kew. In that process, I’ve come across a few interesting tidbits that warranted further investigation, if only to satisfy my own curiosity.

Liddell’s Diary

Guy Maynard Liddell
Head of MI5's B Division
during the Second World War

One of those tidbits was Liddell’s reference to H.K. Bruins on 21 August 1940. The diary entry reads:

August 21, 1940: […] A German named H. K. BRUINS who came over here in the guise of a refugee from Belgium and Holland, is a self-confessed German agent. He had been in possession of a wireless set with which he had been communicating weather reports and other information to the Germans. He had also been instructed to give them early intimation of the advance of British troops into Belgium. This I gather he had done. He was working for RANTZOW [sic]. The question now arises whether this is a shooting case. There is no doubt what ever [sic] that BRUINS [sic] was a German agent and very little doubt that he was operating against us. He was certainly operating against our allies.

There are several items of interest in this entry:

It sounds like Bruins came to England with a wireless set as a supposed refugee but was actually a German agent. As far as I know, the first wave of agents with wireless sets were the four spies who landed along the coast of Kent in early September 1940. Followed closely by Wulf Schmidt and Gösta Caroli in mid-September. But Liddell’s entry makes it sound like Bruins was an earlier spy who arrived in August 1940. This would be news indeed. But it also sounds like Bruins was working on the continent, reporting on the movement of British troops. Did Bruins then take his wireless set to England and use it there?

According to Liddell, Bruins was working for Rantzow - likely a misspelling of Rantzau a.k.a. Nikolaus Ritter, head of the I Luft section of the Hamburg Abwehr. Was Bruins part of Operation LENA run by Nikolaus Ritter?

Liddell indicates that there is “very little doubt” that Bruins was working against the British and that the only question “is whether Bruin [sic] is a shooting case”. Based on what happened to the other German spies, one would think that Bruins’ case would have been open and shut. He was caught with a wireless set and confessed to being an agent of the Germans - clearly a first-class candidate for prosecution. There is, however, no evidence that Bruins was executed, nor even prosecuted, which leaves us wondering… what became of Bruins?

The most obvious place to look for information on H.K. Bruins is the National Archives. Unfortunately, I have been unable to uncover any Security Service file on this agent. Other sources, however, have yielded enough information to begin to answer the above questions.

Camp 020
I had a look at the Camp 020 book published by the PRO in 2000 (edited by Oliver Hoare). There is no mention of Bruins in the index, which is a bit perplexing if he was considered a “shooting case”.

Luckily, there are some other Camp 020 files at the National Archives that can shed some light on Bruins. File KV 2/2593, which records a list of case in Camp 020, has an entry for Harm Knol Bruins which indicates that he arrived at Camp 020 on 10 August 1940 and was transferred to Camp 001 (Oratory Schools) on 19 September 1940. A handwritten comment notes that he was deported to "Holland" in 1945. His personal file (PF) number was 54330 and a note states that the file was destroyed on 7 October 1960. That may explain why there is no file on Bruins in the National Archives.

The short amount of time Bruins spent at Camp 020 (about a month) suggests that he was not considered a “shooting case”. Which leaves one wondering, how could a German agent equipped with a wireless set simply be detained for the duration of the war when others were executed for the same crime?

Dutch Resources
The fact that Bruins was deported to the Netherlands suggests that he might have been a Dutchman and several Dutch-language references do, indeed, mention Harm Knol Bruins. I have used Google Translate on the original Dutch and present here only the English translations. Readers are invited to use the web links to access the Dutch versions. The first reference I came across simply stated:

Further references to Hamkes and Bruins are contained within a series of online documents (De Abwehr in Nederland (1936-1945)) from NISA (Netherlands Intelligence Studies Association). The documents are from an unfinished 2006 manuscript by Frans Kluiters which was edited after Kluiters death (2009) by Etienne Verhoeyen (2016). Verhoeyen published a book in 2011 about the German Abwehr's activities in Belgium, which also provided some useful information.

It would appear that Hamkes (or Doktor Hamkes/Hamken) was the code name of Major Walter Schulze-Bernett, an officer of the German Abwehr.

Walter Emil Gustav Schulze was born 27 November 1896 in Hamburg, the son of a German theatre painter (Friedrich Conrad Gustav Schulze) and an English mother (Amalia Alwina Hamkens). A marginal note on Walter's birth registration states that: On 8 February 1939, Walter changed his family name from Schulze to Schulze-Bernett. It would appear that Schulze-Bernett used a slight variation of his mother's maiden name (Hamkens) as his Abwehr code-name (Hamkes/Hamken).

Schulze-Bernett served in the First World War and was awarded the Iron Cross (First and Second Class). After the war, he worked for the police for several years, before becoming involved in banking. From 1920 to 1935, he worked for several banking interests in Amsterdam.

In 1935, Schulze-Bernett went to Berlin and was assigned to Abwehr Ast I in Nest Cologne. According to Schulze-Bernier, during the period from 1935-1938, his agents didn’t have any “real” missions but were simply given practice tasks such as discovering the location of French army units (data that could be checked against a French publication which the Germans had acquired).

In September 1938, Schulze-Bernett was attached to the German embassy in The Hague as an attaché. He was instructed to expand his espionage networks in Belgium, France and England. After the declaration of war in 1939, Schulz-Bernett’s assignment was expanded to include the Netherlands.

At some point, in the fall of 1938, Schulze-Bernett became acquainted with Dutch civil engineer, Harm Knol Bruins in Rotterdam who was eventually recruited as an agent. Since Schulze-Bernett had been transferred to The Hague around the same time that Bruins was recruited, the new agent was likely transferred to another spy handler at Nest Cologne (one source suggests this was Major Friedrich Rudolph, head of I Heer).

Civil Engineer & Spy - Harm Knol Bruins
Harm Knol Bruins was born 3 April 1880 in Usquert (Gröningen) to Jacob Bruins (24 year old farmer) and his wife Dietje Huizinga. On 12 June 1912, Bruins married Rosina Barbara Stuhlmüeller (born 4 May 1884 in Bamberg, Germany) in Usquert. He gave his occupation as a postal engineer.

A family card from the Rotterdam population registers provides us with some information about Bruins and his wife. It's taken a bit of deciphering but the information contained on the family card seems to follow this pattern:

Transcription of the Family Card for Harm Knol Bruins and family- likely 1930s
Rotterdam Municipal Census records and Family Cards - the period covered 1910 to 1941 (roughly)
(original document from Stadsarchief Rotterdam site)

Herman Gusto Bruins - born 13 January 1916 in Schiedam (outskirts of Rotterdam)

Dietje Brunhilde Bruins - born 5 November 1917 in Schiedam (outskirts of Rotterdam)

The fact that Bruins' eldest son was born in the Dutch East Indies suggests that Bruins and his wife may have traveled there during the course of his work as an engineer. It would appear, however, to have been a short trip as the couple were back in the Europe by 1914. Bruins would have been 34 years old at the outbreak of the First World War, but I have come across no military records to indicate that he served with the Dutch Armed Forces. Bruins' movements in the late 1920s/early 1930s can be roughly traced using his residences on the family card:

On 6 July 1934, according to a marginal note on Bruins’ marriage certificate, he and his wife were divorced in Brugge, Belgium. It would then appear that in late 1938, Bruins was recruited as an agent of the German Abwehr. From May 1939 to December 1939, Bruins traveled to Cologne every month to receive training in Morse code and military matters from two Abwehr officers, Roemer and Koch (likely cover names). Bruins received two cover addresses in Cologne to which he was to send information about airports and aircraft factories in Belgium. He was also instructed to send weather reports (air pressure, temperature, cloud cover, wind direction, precipitation). In order to complete his mission, Bruins was given a wireless transmitter with which he sent messages twice a day in code.

At the end of March 1940, Bruins moved from Knokke (a Belgian coastal community just across the border from the Netherlands) to De Panne (a Belgian coastal community on the border with France, just east of Dunkirk). According to the NISA documents, Bruins required a replacement part for his wireless transmitter which was to be delivered by a “Sturm” (officer/courier/agent?) of Nest Cologne. The courier was stopped en-route, however, and questioned by the authorities at which point he revealed information about Bruins. Strangely, Bruins and his wife [given that he divorced his first wife in 1934, this might be a girlfriend or second wife.] were only arrested on 12 May (two months later) by the French Sûreté and his wireless set was confiscated. According to Kluiters, the rapidly advancing German armies meant that there was no opportunity to try Bruins and he was transferred to England where he was interned for the duration of the war. According to one source, Bruins was interned on the Isle of Man where he made extensive statements which showed that he was indeed a German agent.

From the Camp 020 records, we know that Bruins was deported back to the Netherlands in 1945. A hand-written note on the Rotterdam municipal census records (see image above) may give an exact date for his return: 6/9 - 45 terug [back?] PK. The PK likely stands for a Persoonskaart - and that would support that this may be the date (6 September 1945) upon which he returned to the Netherlands and was assigned a new Persoonskaart.

In 1949, four years after returning to the Netherlands, Bruins wrote to the “State Security” and said that while he had been interned under suspicion of espionage, the suspicion was unfounded. An appendix in the NISA documents indicates that Bruins passed away on 13 January 1966.

According to Liddell, Bruins was an agent of Rantzau but Etienne Verhoeyen doubts that this was the case. First, Bruins never mentioned that he was recruited by Ast Hamburg. Second, according to the leader of the Kriegs-Organisation Belgium, Fritz Unterberg, Bruins was sent to the Belgian coast with a transceiver by Major Wolfermann, the radio specialist from Ast Münster (umbrella organization for Nest Cologne). The radio connection was apparently maintained by Brandel, an operative of Nest Cologne. (To support this information, Verhoeyen quotes: NARA, RG 226, E 119A, B 34, F894, Compte-rendu de l'interrogatoire de F. Unterberg door de Securite Nationale Parijs, 4.8.1945.)

Conclusion
What then can we deduce from all of this? Can we answer the questions posited above? Some of them, most definitely.

It would appear that civil engineer Harm Knol Bruins was recruited in The Netherlands in late 1938 or early 1939 by Major Walter Schulze-Bernett (code name Doctor Hamkes/Hamken). Bruins received training at Nest Cologne in wireless transmission and was sent to coastal Belgium to report on military matters (airports and aircraft factories) and the weather. On 12 May 1940, Bruins and his wife/girlfriend(?) were arrested by the French authorities but, due to the rapid advance of the German army, Bruins was not prosecuted on the Continent but sent to England.

Bruins arrived at Camp 020 on 10 August 1940, which leaves one wondering, where was he for the three months between mid-May and mid-August. In the rush to evacuate the continent in late May 1940, had he become mixed in with other legitimate refugees? Although Liddell seemed to think that Bruins had the potential to be a “shooting case”, it would seem that there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute the man. On 19 September, Bruins was sent to Camp 001 (Oratory Schools) and interned for the duration of the war. What became of his wife/girlfriend remains unknown. It would seem pretty clear that Bruins did not conduct any espionage with a wireless transmitter whilst in England and it is highly unlikely that he was a LENA agent sent by Nikolaus Ritter.

The story of Major Walter Schulze-Bernett, who recruited Bruins, is fascinating in its own right.

After the war (1973), Schulze-Bernett wrote an account of the Venlo Incident which took place in November 1939 shortly after Schulze-Bernett had been appointed as attaché with the German Embassy in The Hague.

From June 1940 to June 1941, Schulze-Bernett was head of Gruppe I, Ast Netherlands in The Hague. He worked closely with the head of Referat I Luft in The Hague, Major Mercker (alias Malten), who is likely identical with Major Merkel (alias Malten) with whom Josef Jakobs dealt whilst receiving training in The Hague. But that is another blog post!

In July 1941, Schulze-Bernett was appointed head of the K.O. (Kriegs-Organisation) Near East in Ankara, where he remained until 1 March 1943. He finished the war as a Lieutenant-Colonel. After the war, Schulze-Bernett was apparently interned by the Allies for a year, but then released. He lived in Hamburg with his wife and operated an import/export business, passing away in 1985.

Prior to his transfer to Ankara, it would appear that Schulze-Bernett was also involved with Operation Aquilar, a plan to save Jews by ostensibly by infiltrating Abwehr agents into a stream of Jewish refugees sent to the Americas. As part of this operation, Schulze-Bernett was able to save at least 176 Jews (and perhaps as many as 700). According to Tom Topol (Passport-Collector site), in 2015, Schulze-Bernett was nominated to be awarded the title “Righteous among the Nations”, although his name has yet to be added to the database on the Yad Vashem site.

I was unable to find any reference to Walter Schulze-Bernett in the National Archives catalogue at Kew, which is odd if he was involved with the Abwehr in both The Hague and Ankara.

Post Script - 2018 12 30
Author David Tremain kindly pointed out that in his book on J.M. Dronkers (Rough Justice - published 2016) he too has mulled on the identity of Abwehr spy handler Hamkus/Hamkens (see p.39-42, 69, 81).

14 December 2018

In reviewing the military file of Robin W.G. Stephens, I came across several references to Abyssinia and/or Ethiopia. On his application file, Stephens was asked: Have you an intimate knowledge of any parts of the British Empire, and/or Foreign Countries?

Extract from British Army personnel file of
Robin William George Stephsn

His handwriting is a bit of a cipher but it appears to read:
Near & Middle East,
Abyssinia,
South Arabia,
Extensive Continental Knowledge.

After the war, Robin's father wrote a letter to the War Office seeking information on the whereabouts of his son. He provided a resume of his son's career and noted that Stephens had:

served as Adjutant to British Red Cross Expedition to Ethiopia during Italo-Abyssinian War

been invalided home from Abyssinia to the Masonic Hospital, Ravenscourt

This provides us with a bit more information, and a date range (Italo-Abyssinian War), for Stephens' time in Abyssinia/Ethiopia. Stephens' father also quoted a letter:

"As I have had frequent occasion to report, I consider Captain Stephens to be, without exception, the only really indispensable member of the Red Cross in Ethiopia.

Coupled with real capability is a capacity for hard and conscientious work I have seldom seen equaled.

I consider that his work as Administrative Officer has been fully twice as hard and unending as that of any other official, and that the Committee would be hard put to it to find another Administrative Officer with half his capabilities or devotion to duty."

Robin W.G. Stephens circa 1940s

High praise indeed and one more bit of evidence that confirms that Stephens served with the British Red Cross in Abyssinia/Ethiopia during the mid-1930s.

John Melly did indeed serve with the British Red Cross expedition in Ethiopia. Born in Liverpool in 1898, André John Mesnard Melly enlisted in 1917 and served with the Royal Field Artillery. He was awarded the Military Cross and finished the war as a Second Lieutenant. After the war, Melly studied medicine in Liverpool and became a surgeon and a member of the Fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons (FRCS). A passionate Christian, Melly dreamed of combining his two passions (faith and medicine) and becoming a medical missionary. Stephens himself would later describe Melly "as intensely, but unobtrusively religious". After a visit to Ethiopia in early 1935, Melly recognized the signs of looming war and returned to Britain where he founded the British Ambulance Service in Ethiopia (BASE). Initially funded to a large extent out of his own pocket, BASE eventually became integrated with the British Red Cross.

As for the recipient of the letter written by Melly regarding Stephens, Sir Harold Ben Fawcus was indeed the Director General of the British Red Cross. Fawcus was a highly decorated officer who had served with the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) since 1900. He was mentioned six times in despatches during the First World War and even spent time along the north-west frontier of India during the third Afghan War in 1919, making one wonder if he had encountered Stephens at that point.

A bit of digging on the internet has yielded several references to Stephens in relation to Ethiopia. At this point, some context, and a brief history lesson, is in order for those who, like me, have no clue about the Italo-Abyssinian War. Before we begin, I should mention that at this point in his life, Stephens was still sometimes hyphenating his name with that of his wife - "Townshend-Stephens" - see my blog post of Phyllis Gwendolen Townshend for more information.

The First Italo-Ethiopian War
It all began with the jockeying for position of European colonizers in Africa. The big players, England and France, weren't all that pleased when the other acquired an advantage in the race for colonies, particularly locations of strategic importance. The first Italo-Abyssinian War took place in 1895-1896 as part of Italy's bid to establish a colonial foothold in Africa. The Ethiopian Empire (also known as Abyssinia) was one of the few regions that had remained independent as European colonizers subjugated the rest of Africa. Italy on the one side, was supported by England, Germany and Austria-Hungary while Ethiopia was supported by the French and the Russians. After early losses, the Ethiopians gave the Italians a serious trouncing and emerged victorious, much to the chagrin of the Italians. The Treaty of Addis Ababa forced Italy to recognize the independence of Ethiopia. But the Italians never forgot the humiliation of their losses at the hands of the Ethiopians.The Second Italo-Ethiopian War
By the early 1930s, the Italians were again eyeing Ethiopia with a view to bringing it under their control. They had tried "peaceful" infiltration and not met with much success. By late 1934, Mussolini had ordered the military invasion of Ethiopia. Both England and France, preferring to keep Italy as a buffer against Nazi Germany, turned a blind eye to the build-up of troops along the Ethiopian border. They didn't want to antagonize the Italians who were already a bit too friendly with Nazi Germany.

On 3 October, 1935, Italian forces invaded Ethiopia from Eritrea, and the war was on. All of this took place despite the fact that both Italy and Ethiopia were members of the League of Nations. It would appear that the League of Nations turned a blind eye to Italy's invasion of Ethiopia, despite the fact that the invasion was a clear violation of Article X of the Covenant of the League of Nations. (Article X called for assistance to be given to a member that experienced external aggression.)

At the outbreak of war, the International Red Cross encouraged both sides to uphold the provisions of the Geneva Convention which protected the wounded and sick and, since 1929, prisoners of war. Ethiopia agreed to sign the Convention on sick and wounded but the Ethiopian Emperor declined to accept the treaty covering prisoners of war. Both sides, however, were bound by the 1925 Protocol which prohibited the use of poison gas.

As the war raged, both Italy and Ethiopia committed war atrocities. The Ethiopians tortured and mutilated Italian prisoners of war while the Italians, in retaliation, used mustard gas and bombed field hospitals set up by the British and Swedish Red Cross. In early 1936, Dr. Marcel Junod, a Swiss doctor with the Red Cross, noted:

"That evening [18 March 1936] I had occasion to see with my own eyes an Italian aircraft spraying the ground with an oily liquid, dropping like fine rain and covering a huge area with thousands of droplets, each of which, when it touched the tissues, made a small burn, turning a few hours later into a blister. It was the blistering gas the British call mustard gas. Thousands of soldiers were affected by severe lesions due to this gas..." (ICRC - Ethiopia 1935-36)

R.W.G. Stephens and Mustard Gas
Italy's use of mustard gas in the early months of 1936 created quite a furor. There were numerous newspapers reports from early April 1936. A Times correspondent reporting from Ethiopia reported that:

"I witnessed during the subsequent three weeks, at Quoram [Korem] and Ashangi [Ashenge], almost daily bombardments, accompanied by the spraying of mustard gas, against which only a diving dress could give complete protection. Abyssinian soldiers, peasants, women and children are receiving ghastly burns, covering their heads and shoulders. Captain Townshend Stephens and Dr. Empey, who went to the assistance of Warrant Officer Atkinson, to help him treat 100 victims passed through the zone of mustard gas and showed marked effects from it." (Sydney Morning Herald, 6 April 1936, page 9)

The Time correspondent was quite incensed when he read a report that "members of the House of Lords hoped that the allegations regarding the Italian use of poison gas were untrue". He wonderingly contemplated "the marvels of that world [Europe] where facts dissolve into speculation. Poison gas has for months been a brutal reality for soldiers on the northern front and for peasants in the bush." (Sydney Morning Herald, 6 April 1936, page 9)

The New Zealand Herald had the same report by the Times Correspondent but also quoted Stephens directly:

"Captain Townshend Stephens, a British Red Cross official, on his return to Addis Ababa from the front, describes the terrors of gas in the Quoram [Korem] region as the cruelest form of butchery. He states that thousands of helpless men, women and children are suffering from horrible festering boils and sores which gas has produced.

'We have treated about 3000 patients in the past month,' said Captain Stephens, 'of whom about 20 in every 1000 have died, but hundreds of those affected do not reach medical aid. Gas, sprayed from an apparatus affixed to the wings of aeroplanes, descends like invisible dew and the victims are not aware of being affected until an hour after the raid. Babies succumb almost immediately.' " (New Zealand Herald, 6 April 1936, page 11)

A later report by the Stockholm International
Peace Research Instituteadds some details to Stephens encounter with mustard gas:

"Another case of injury by gas occurred when the British Ambulance
officers, Captain Townshend Stephens and Dr. Empey, went to the
assistance of the crew of an Ethiopian Red Cross plane which had been
bombarded by the Italians while lying on the open ground at Kworam [Korem]. The
officers found themselves passing through a zone of mustard gas and both
shortly afterwards showed marked indications of inhalation of the
vapour, while Captain Townshend Stephens suffered slight but distinct
burns on the throat. Among the wounded, who during Mr. Holmes' stay in
the region of Kworam [Korem] were streaming back from the battles south of
Makale [Mekelle] and in the Tembien, there were a great proportion of gas victims.
Many were suffering from gangrened wounds due to the lack of facilities
and materials for treating the effects of gas at the front." (SIPRI, p.
182)

Stephens, too, apparently wrote about his experiences in an article published in St. Bartholomew's Hospital Journal (see references below). In one instance, in order to escape the bombing by Italian aircraft, the British Red Cross moved one of their field hospitals into a cave. It was tight, cramped quarters, damp and infested with fleas. During air raids, the local population fled to the cave and Stephens noted that while the new field hospital was bombproof, 'it was a sad failure as a hospital'. (quoted in Between Bombs and Good Intentions, p. 169 - see references below) One wonders if Stephens' experience in Ethiopia perhaps coloured his
perception of the Italians, for he would later write that Italians are
"undersized, posturing folk".

Stephens' father noted that Robin had been invalided home from Abyssinia in 1936. It is unclear if this was due to the effects of mustard gas or from other injuries.

Dr. John Melly, the leader of the British Red Cross Expedition to Ethiopia would not be so lucky. He died in Addis Adaba on 5 May 1936 after being shot in the lung during a riot in the city while treating a patient in the street. Given that Stephens' father references a letter by Melly dated 1 December 1936 (after Melly died), one wonders if perhaps the date on the letter should have been 1 December 1935. Or perhaps the letter was sent posthumously after being found in Melly's files. Before his death, Melly was emphatic about the use of mustard gas by the Italians:

This isn’t a war — it isn’t even a slaughter — it’s the torture of thousands of defenceless men, women and children, with bombs and poison gas.”

National Portrait Gallery - Sir Harold Ben Fawcus KCB CMG DSO DCL MB KHP, former Director General of the Army Medical Services (1929-1934) and former Director General of the British Red Cross (1934-1938)

If anyone ever gets over to St. Bartholomew's Hospital Archives & Museum in West Smithfield, London, the reference for Stephens' journal article is: SBHMS/PB/1/42 - although it appears one needs to email ahead of time to make an appointment to visit/view the archives.
(barts.archives@bartshealth.nhs.uk)

10 December 2018

I've known for a while that Robin W.G. Stephens, commandant of Camp 020, had spent some years in Muscat during the late 1920s. The more I dug into the Muscat Levy Corps, however, the more perplexed I
became. What was a British officer doing commanding a group of soldiers,
drawn from what is now Pakistan, in the deserts Oman? Before we get to Stephens, therefore, we need to back up a bit and get some context.

History of Muscat

General map of the southern Arabian Peninsula with Muscat marked
(from Google Maps)

Muscat lies on the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, part of what is now Oman. Back in the 1500s, Muscat was a convenient way-point for ships traveling between Europe and India and the first Europeans to control the area were the Portuguese. Their superior naval tactics allowed them to gain control of the coastal area from local leaders thereby allowing them to expand their profitable spice trade with India.

By the mid 1600s, the British, in the shape of the British East India Company, were nosing around the area and signed a treaty with some of the desert tribes in a bid to weaken Portuguese control of the area. In 1650, Imam Sultan Bin Saif rose up and expelled the Portuguese from Muscat and Oman.

Things ticked along quite nicely for several decades, with minimal interference from the British. The Oman empire expanded and eventually included enclaves as far away as Zanzibar and as near as Gwadur (a coastal area in modern-day Pakistan) across the Gulf of Oman.

All was well until the late 1700s when Napoleon started challenging the British in Egypt. The British government became more directly involved and signed several treaties with the Omani ruling family. In 1856, a succession crisis followed the Sultan's death and the British stepped in and divided the Omani empire into two. This, along with several other factors (debt), weakened the sultanate and meant that the ruling family became increasingly dependent upon British military and political support to maintain power.

In the early 1900s, conservative anti-Muscat tribes in the interior, sensing a weakness in their foe, stepped up their attacks on the Sultanate. Propped up by British military and political support, the Sultan held the tribes at bay, but there was no clear-cut victory for either side. Finally, on 25 September 1920, the British government brokered the Treaty of Sib between the Sultan of Muscat and the Imam of Oman. In return for autonomy, the interior tribes promised to cease attacking the coastal communities. The British preserved their power through the Sultan and the Sultan received a loan from the British which allowed him to pay down his debts.

Most of the British military support during the tribal rebellions in the early 1900s came in the form of troops from the Indian Army.

A fort at Bayt al-Falaj, near the Sultan's summer palace, became the headquarters of the force and the surrounding village soon became an army encampment.

On 19 April 1921, a year after the Treaty of Sib had been signed, replacements for the Indian troops arrived in the form of the Seistan Levy Corps from Baluchistan (modern day-Pakistan) under the command of Captain E.D. McCarthy. The new arrivals set up camp in al-Wutayyah while the Indian Army troops vacated their headquarters at Bayt al-Falaj. Unfortunately, the 250 Seistan soldiers were not used to the climate and malaria decimated their ranks. Many of the soldiers were discharged in the first year and replaced by Makrani Baluchis from the Sultan's enclave at Gwadur, across the Gulf of Oman.

The Muscat Levy Corps was small in size, never mustering more than 300 men, and usually 200 or less. Its role was primarily that of a garrison force, providing armed guards for the Sultan's Palace, the British Political Agency and the Sultanate Treasury. In 1923, the first commandant, Captain McCarthy, handed command of the Muscat Levy Corps (MLC) to Captain R.G.E.W. Alban. Given the poor economic condition of the Sultanate, the MLC suffered from budgetary constraints which manifested in the form of inadequate firearms and a declining roster. It would appear that Captain Alban was invalided unexpectedly in March 1924 and his successor, who arrived in July 1924, was Captain George J. Eccles.

On 11 May 1926, Captain Eccles wrote his final report on the MLC and handed over command to Captain Robin William George Stephens, seconded from the Indian Army.

For the next two years, Stephens took the Corps in hand. His report, dated 11 May 1928, gives us a good sense of the state of the Corps and how he sought to improve discipline and efficiency.

The Corps consisted of one Commandant, three Indian officers and 165 other ranks: two platoons of Muscat Arabs, two platoons of Makrani Baluchis and one platoon of Muscat State subjects. Stephens noted that when he took command, the Corps mustered 180 troops despite the fact that Eccles had considered 200 to be a minimum. The climate proved to be a complicating factor. During the rainy season, malaria was a danger while during the dry months, boils were the main problem. Discipline was generally excellent, particularly after Stephens started an Officers Club and an NCO's Club. This reduced the intermixing of officers, NCOs and troops which Stephens noted could "be so detrimental to discipline". Stephens worked at increasing the marksmanship of the soldiers, despite the fact that they were issued with older rifles. Finances were an ongoing issue and Stephens had tried to reduce the budget, as had his predecessor.

As for the role of the Muscat Levy Corps, Stephens noted that there was no occasion to use the troops to deal with hostile people and so their work mainly consisted in the maintenance of Bayt al-Falaj, providing guards and furnishing ceremonial duties. In addition, Stephens had the troops repair the rudimentary road between Matrah and Bayt al-Falaj, construct a road between Matrah and Muscat and construct a road to Ruwi and then onwards to Bawshar and al-Sib.

View of Muscat ca 1902 (from Wikipedia)

In addition to road work, the troops also cleaned out the water channel from Ruwi to Bayt al-Falaj, put the grass farm in Ruwi in order and cleaned out the water channel at al-Wutayyah. Stephens noted that the Sultan had expressed a wish that a pipe band be instituted and a beginning was made despite the lack of trained pipers. Finally, the troops built a tennis court "that added much to the amenities of the place".

In 1928, Stephens handed over command to Captain A.R. Walker who noted that "Captain Stephens had brought the Corps to a very satisfactory state of discipline and smartness". Major Fowle, Political Agent & H.B.M.'s Consul in Muscat, noted that "the men are cheerful, well turned out, smart in handling their arms and keen on regimental games and sports".

In contrast to his reports from the 1940s regarding the work of Camp 020, Stephens' report on the Muscat Levy Corps is measured and objective without his later flair for the dramatic.

05 December 2018

Part 4 is coming up this Thursday (December 6, 2018 at 8 p.m. in the UK) and focuses on the story of Bella in the Wych Elm. The episode is going to cover the possible links between the woman's skeleton found in a hollow wych elm in Hagley Wood in 1943 and Clara Bauerle, German cabaret singer and mistress of Josef Jakobs (ill-fated German spy executed in 1941).

While I'm naturally most interested in the episode about Bella, during filming last year, the crew mentioned some of the other stories that they were investigating, all of which sounded quite intriguing.

After reaching out to the production team from Like A Shot, I received a private link to view the episodes after they have aired in the UK. (Much easier than downloading Tunnel Bear again and pretending to be a resident of the UK!) For those of you in the UK, you can view the episodes via this link. So far, I've seen the first two episodes, both of which were fascinating.

Episode 1 - Hitler's Niece
First off... I had no idea that Hitler had a niece! She apparently lived with Hitler in Munich in the late 1920s and early 1930s. She accompanied him to receptions and events and many began to wonder... what exactly was their relationship? Hitler was quite domineering and the pair had many violent arguments in the weeks leading up to her apparent suicide in 1931. The story raises raise a lot of questions. What exactly was the relationship between Hitler and his niece, Geli Raubal (19 years his junior)? Did she commit suicide or was it murder? There are no clear answers which makes this story a rather intriguing mystery.

Episode 2 - The Duke of Windsor
Happy to say I HAVE heard of the Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII who abdicated the throne in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson. During the Second World War, the Duke's pro-Nazi sympathies created a bit of a stir and he was sent/exiled to the Bahamas where he was appointed/demoted Governor. In 1943, a wealthy British-Canadian expat, Sir Harry Oakes, was found brutally murdered at his residence. The Duke, rather than calling upon Scotland Yard to investigate the murder, invited a couple of Miami police officers to come to the island and investigate the case. Again, there are a lot of questions. Why did the Duke turn to police in Miami rather than Britain? Was he trying to cover up financial shenanigans? Was there Nazi involvement? Another intriguing story.

I'm looking forward to the next few episodes:

Episode 3 - A Serial Killer in Berlin - the story of Paul Ogorzow, an S-Bahn railway worker who raped and murdered numerous women from 1939 to 1941

Episode 4 - Bella in the Wych Elm - the story of the woman's skeleton found in a hollow wych elm in Hagley Wood in 1943

Review
While much of the information presented in these stories is available on Wikipedia or other sources, seeing it on screen is always much more engaging. I appreciated how the series brought in experts/authors to provide context to the story. The re-enactments were also helpful in creating an engaging backdrop for the story.

4.5 out of 5 - I did find that some of the re-enactment scenes were over-used and became repetitive after a while.

03 December 2018

Every once in a while, I chase after intriguing stories that pique my interest. One of those stories is that of enigmatic Lt. Col. Adrian Simpson, mentioned in several Coldspur blogs. Simpson served with MI5 in B3 as a wireless expert for a brief time before moving on to serve with MI(R)in the Middle East.

I always like a good research challenge and decided to delve into the genealogy sites and see what I could dig up, if only to satisfy my own curiosity. The problem with a common name like "Simpson" is that the trail can very quickly get muddled. Fortunately, our friend Simpson's full name was rather unique - "Adrian Francis Hugh Sibbald Simpson". In the end, I have uncovered rather more than I expected and this blog post is therefore correspondingly long!

The Knighted Surgeon-General Photographer
We begin the tale with Benjamin Simpson and Agnes Jane Sarah Sibbald who were married in 1859 in Holy Trinity Church in Chelsea, London. Originally from Ireland, Benjamin was a doctor serving with the Bengal Army in India. Agnes had been born in India and after their marriage, the couple returned to India.

Benjamin would end up serving in the Indian Medical Service (Bengal) from 1853 to 1890. He was also a keen photographer and many of his photographs can be found online.

Adrian was born twelve years after his youngest sibling (Silvia), and almost twenty years after his oldest sibling (Agnes). Less than a year later, in the 1881 census, Adrian was living at 7 Melville Street in Edinburgh with his mother Agnes (age 42), sister Agnes F.E. (age 18) and sister Silvia M.F. (age 12). The two older boys were likely away at school while their father was serving in India.

A few years later, Benjamin was appointed Surgeon-General of the Indian Medical Service and, on 15 February 1887, was one of the first individuals to be made a Knight Commander - Order of the Indian Empire (KCIE).

Benjamin retired from the Indian Medical Service in 1890 and by 1891, the family had moved to Weston-super-mare in Somerset. The 1891 census, however only lists Adrian and his mother.

By 1901, Adrian was no longer living at home, although his sister Silvia Renton was living with her parents at 72 Ashley Gardens, Hanover
Square, London. The household also included five servants: housemaid, parlourmaid, cook,
[indecipherable], and a sick nurse. It is likely that the sick nurse cared for Silvia who, although married, lived apart from her husband and young daughter and would pass away in 1905, a few months after securing a divorce from her husband (see Simpson Sideshoots section at bottom of this blog). But what had become of Adrian?

In the early 1900s, Adrian's name appears in a number of London Gazette entries as well as British Army Lists. From these, we can piece together the rough shape of his military career. By 14 February 1900, Adrian was a Second Lieutenant with the Indian Staff Corps.

A few years later, on 12 December, 1902, Adrian was promoted to Lieutenant whilst serving with the 94th Russell's Infantry in India (before 1903 was called the Hyderabad Contingent).

Whilst serving in India, Adrian was initiated into the Freemasons on 7 September 1905 and joined the Lodge
Orion in the West (Poona Bombay).

Just two years later, however, on 9 March 1907, Adrian resigned from the Indian Army and apparently made his way back to England. That summer, Adrian married divorcee Monica de
Wilton Roche (née Thackwell) Burrows in York.

From Soldier to Engineer
These are all rather dry facts and really don't tell us much about the character of Adrian. We do know, however, that upon his return to England, Adrian studied wireless technology, for in later years he was associated with the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company Ltd.

In 1911, Adrian became an Associate Member of
the Institute of Electrical Engineers and in April of that same year, The Marconigraph (journal of the Marconi company) posted this notice:

Captain
Adrian Simpson, late of H.M. Indian Army, has been appointed to the
head office staff of Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Co., Ltd., in London. (The Marconigraph - April 1911)

[N.B. If the Marconigraph pdf links don't work - the documents can be downloaded direct from the Wireless World page of the American Radio History website.]
A few months later, the November 1911 edition of the The Marconigraph has this to say about Adrian and his role with the Marconi company:

In
[Russia], and in the East generally, there is a big field for
development, and in order to be thoroughly equipped to cope with the
work in that vast territory we have secured the controlling interest in
the Russian Company of Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony. This is a
company which has been in existence for some two or three years, and is
carrying out large contracts for the Russian Government, and are
negotiating for further contracts of considerable magnitude with the
Russian War Office, with the Marine, and with the Post Office. Captain
Adrian Simpson, a member of our staff, in whose ability and integrity we
have implicit confidence, has been appointed managing director of the
Russian Company, and Mr. Marconi and I [Chairman - Godfrey C. Isaacs]
are joining the board. Under Captain Simpson's direction we are
confident that a handsome revenue will accrue to us from this new field
of action.

Finally, I came across a January 1912 edition of The Marconigraph journal which included a rather detailed biography of Adrian, confirming much of what we already know, but presenting the information as a story full of adventure and derring-do! I reproduce the article here in its entirety:

Adrian Simpson is a son of Surgeon-General Sir Benjamin Simpson, K.C.I.E., and was born in Edinburgh in 1880. His early years were passed amid the cultured and inspiring influences of his native city, whence he went to Clifton College [likely the one in Bristol] and then to the Royal Military College [Sandhurst]. Apparently he was destined for a military career, and shortly after the outbreak of the South African War [1899] he gained a commission in the British Army, being gazetted to the 31st East Surrey Regiment, then stationed in Lucknow [Uttar Pradesh, India]. After a short service with this regiment he joined the Hyderabad contingent of the Indian Army [former name of the 94th Russell's Infantry]. This step marked the opening of a varied and interesting career which brought Mr. Simpson in touch with life in several countries and considerably enlarged his experience in dealings with men and the handling of affairs. He served first of all in the Bengal, Bombay, and Madras Residences; afterwards he was placed in command of a detachment of native troops in charge of one of the large camps in which were housed the Boer prisoners captured in the South African War; later he served on plague duty in Central India. He went to Russia in 1903 in order to learn that difficult language, and so proficient did he become in this subject that in the examinations for interpretership in the Army he gained the highest possible degree. Moreover, he obtained Government awards for proficiency in Persian and Hindustani and to the linguistic laurels which he gained by sheer merit and ability, must be added a knowledge of French. Mr. Simpson spent two years in Russia, and during that time he travelled extensively, his travels taking him from the Arctic circle to the Persian frontier. Indeed, the all-pervading wanderlust of the modern Anglo-Saxon seems to have absorbed him, for at various times he travelled in Cashmir, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, India, Russia, and elsewhere. In 1904, when the Armenian troubles were prevalent in the Caucusus [a reference to the Armenian–Tatar massacres (1905-1907)?], he succeeded in safely carrying the "Foreign Office Bag" from St. Petersburg to Tehran. He also realised that there was oil in the Caucusus as there was balm in Gilead, and he accordingly spent some months with a party of English engineers prospecting for oil in those regions.

In Mr. Simpson's subsequent career we discern a peculiar trace of heredity in the combination of scientific and military practice [likely a reference to his father who combined a medical/scientific practice with a military career], although in the case of our subject it was the scientific practice that was superimposed upon an edifice of military training and travel. Leaving the service [1907 according to the Gazette] in order to make a thorough study of wireless telegraphy, Mr. Simpson commenced work with the English De Forest Wireless Telegraph Syndicate Ltd., and continued afterwards with the Amalgamated Radio Telegraph Co. Ltd. (owning the Poulsen Patents). During his service with the last named company he obtained an excellent opportunity of which he took full advantage of studying wireless telegraphy, not only as practised in England but also on the Continent where he spent considerable time in Berlin and Copenhagen, becoming subsequently associated with the Lepel Wireless Telegraph Co. Ltd. Mr. Simpson's connection with Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Co. Ltd., commenced with the Field Station Department, but on the formation of the Russian Company of Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony he was appointed managing director of that company. His unique experience, his commercial and technical attainments, his extensive travels, his linguistic ability, and, last, but by no means least, his knowledge of the language and people of that interesting country, encourage highest hopes for the success of his new enterprise, which all who know his kind and courtly nature, and his sound judgment and energy, are confident of seeing the happy realisation.

Mr. Simpson is an Associate Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and a member of the Anglo-Russian Chamber of Commerce. When a Royal Commission sat during 1910 to consider trade relations between Canada and the West Indies, Mr. Simpson gave evidence regarding the practicability of connecting the West Indies by wireless instead of cable.

It would appear that Adrian spent the next couple of years in Russia, managing the Marconi company's interests. With the outbreak of the First World War, things got a bit more complicated.

First World War

According to the Electrical Engineers membership records, Adrian was listed in 1915 and 1917 as working for the Compagnie Russe de Telegraphie et Telephonie sans Fil, Lopuchiuskaja 14, Petrograd, Russia. This must be taken with a grain of salt as we shall see.

One of the Coldspur blogs
references an author (Stephen Dorril) who noted that Simpson "had been ADC to the Grand
Duke Nicholas in the Russian Army’s Caucasus 'Savage Division' ". Was that possible? It seems fairly clear from the 1912 Marconigraph article that Adrian spoke near-perfect Russian and was quite familiar with that "interesting" country. It is also clear that he spent time in Russia from 1911/1912 managing the Russian branch of the Marconi company. But did he serve with the Grand Duke Nicholas?

Confirmation of at least part of this claim comes from the medal card of Adrian (A.F.H.S.) Simpson (see below) which has a number of notations for
his military service during the First World War. He is listed as an A.D.C.
(Aide-de-Camp) with the War Office (with a rank of Major), as well as
"Special Service" (rank of Major). Another layer of notation adds "CMG"
and "Gen Staff" as well as "Lt Col". He was apparently ineligible for
the 1914-15 Star. A final notation simply states: "Russia 19-8-14" [likely 19 August 1914]. A notice in the Gazette has him as Temporary Captain Adrian Simpson from the General List effective 1 May 1915, although an earlier Gazette notice seems to indicate he may have been a Temporary Captain as early as 14 September 1914. This would seem to confirm that Adrian did indeed serve in a military capacity in Russia as an Aide-de-Camp.

First World War Medal Card of Adrian Francis Hugh Sibbald Simpson
(from Ancestry)

Additional information about Adrian's military service in Russia can be found in a collection of photographs at the Imperial War Museum taken in 1915 by "Major Adrian Simpson". While we can't be utterly certain that this officer is identical with our Adrian F.H.S. Simpson, the convergence of facts (and further information below) would suggest that the likelihood is extremely high.

Photographs taken by Major Adrian Simpson whilst serving as a staff officer with Major General Alfred Knox, British liaison officer to the Imperial Russian Army, during the First World War. Images include:

column of Russian artillery on the march; (possibly a photograph below)

Russian military band and soldiers dancing;

refugees from Warsaw during the German advance on the city in August 1915;

British Red Cross motor ambulances in Russia;

the Dimitri Palace in Petrograd (used a a military hospital);

Russian medical staff and wounded in the Anglo-Russian hospital, Petrograd;

the Fortress of St Peter and St Paul at Petrograd (full reference listed in Sources below)

While the Imperial War Museum does not provide thumbnail images of any of Adrian's photographs, several are included in a 1915 edition of The Sphere magazine. The description of the photograph below (included in the text of the website) reads:

"with the Czar's Brother in the Carpathians - by Captain Adrian Simpson -
with portrait of Simpson and - - - group photo of officers of the
Kabardine Regiment".

This would suggest that Adrian is featured in the photograph but much of the text is too small to read.

Caption below photograph:
"The Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovitch with Staff and Officers of the Kabardine Regiment
Among the group is included one of the priests, or mullahs, of the Caucasian Native Division as well as certain of the more influential of the Caucasian princes. (Thanks to Traugott Vitz for deciphering that line!)
With the Czar's Brother in the Carpathians
by Captain Adrian Simpson, Acting A.D.C. to his Imperial Highness the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovitch"
(From The Sphere magazine - via Lord Durham Rare Books)

The photograph shown above was also reproduced in the Boston Sunday Globe on 15 April 1917 and includes a lengthy article which was reprinted from The Sphere magazine:

The following account of the command of the Grand Duke Michael, younger brother of the Czar, who refused the throne of the Romanoffs before it was really offered him, during the operations around Przemysl in the Spring of 1915 was written by Capt Adrian Simpson, who was then acting as his aid-de-camp, and is reprinted from the London Sphere:

Shortly after the commencement of hostilities the Caucasian Native Division, which was originally formed during the Japanese War, was reembodied. Recruited as it is from the wild mountain tribes of the Caucasus, it has since become famous under the title of "La Division Sauvage".... [and the article continues]

"Russian Troops Moving to the Attack in the Carpathians
This photograph was taken by Captain Adrian Simpson, acting A.D.C. to the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovitch, commander of the Caucasian Native Division, operating in Galicia. The troops are seen passing through a defile in the Carpathians and across a tributary of the River San."
(From The War Illustrated Album DeLUXE - published 1915)

While Adrian served in Russia from 1914 to 1915, there is also strong evidence to suggest that he was part of the British Signals Intelligence unit, simply named MI1b (a predecessor of the Government Code & Cipher School). I'm not going to delve into
MI1b into great detail and offer a few extracts which mention Adrian and provide some context:

Although the story told of British Signals Intelligence in the First
World War focuses mainly on the work of Room 40 in the Admiralty, it was
in fact MO5b (later MI1b), an intelligence section in the War Office
which had the first success against German codes. This was largely due
to the fact that the French, who had years of experience of Signals
Intelligence against the Germans, were prepared to share all that they
knew. (GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) website - The Story of Signals Intelligence 1914-2014)

We then skip to another section of the GCHQ website which presents the following information:

The
army was given control of the air defence of Great Britain in June 1916
- until then responsibility had been untidily split between the
Admiralty and the War Office with their respective Signals Intelligence
organisations, Room 40 and M.I.1(b), both working against aircraft
communications. As part of the new arrangements the areas of M.I.1 (b)
responsible for wireless interception, direction finding (D/F) and
traffic analysis were split off into a new section called M.I.1 (e),
with support to air defence as its main operational task.

M.I.1 (e) was headed by Major Adrian Simpson
[emphasis added], who at the outbreak of war was the managing director
of the Marconi wireless company's Russian subsidiary. After a period
spent trying (largely unsuccessfully) to improve Russian communications
and communications security he returned to Britain in 1915 and joined
M.I.1 (b). Simpson was an enterprising character, as one of his officers
recalled: "If he wanted something and the War Office refused it, he
tried the Admiralty, who generally granted it to score off the War
Office. If the Senior Service failed there was still the Air Force, or
even the Post Office, which last he actually persuaded to put up three
direction-finding stations at their own expense and to provide all the
men to run them." (GCHQ website - Defending our Skies)

Order of St. Stanislas, 2nd Class
(with swords)

Finally, the London Gazette dated 9 March 1917 has the following note:

Decorations conferred by Field-MarshalHis Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia

Order of St. Stanislas, 2nd Class (with Swords)
Temporary Major Adrian Simpson, Royal Engineers, General Staff (November, 1915)

Order of St. Anne, 3rd Class
Temporary Major Adrian Simpson, Royal Engineers, General Staff (November 1915)

In 1917, Adrian received the Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) "for valuable service in connection with the war". He was listed as a Temporary Major with the Royal Engineers.

In November 1918, The Wireless World published an article entitled: Behind the Scenes in Russia: III - Adventures of a British War Correspondent on the Eastern Front. The article was written by Robert Wilton (Petrograd Correspondent of the "Times") and mentions our friend Adrian. Whether Wilton could claim full credit for encouraging Adrian's service with the Russians is another matter...

...I had had indirect relationship with the Caucasian Native Horse. A representative of the Viceroy (then Count Vorentsov-Dashkov) asked me if I could recommend some of our officers who had served with Indian cavalry regiments to join the new force. I mentioned this request to a friend in Petrograd, holding a high post in the wireless service, who had been a Captain in the Hyderabad contingent [likely Adrian Simpson]. It seemed to me an excellent method of bringing the Indian and Caucasian cavalry into personal touch with possible benefit to both sides. Through my humble intervention two British officers were able to serve with the C.N.H. for a few months: Captain (now Major) Adrian Simpson and Captain (now Colonel) John Kirkwood.

Thus it would appear that Adrian served with the Sauvage Division from 1914 to 1915 and then returned to England where he took up service with Room 40 of the British Signals Intelligence unit. Further confirmation of his may lie within records at the National Archives in Kew (see Untapped Sources section below).

Inter-War Period

Former location of the Windham Club
13 St. James's Square, London
(from Google Streetview)

By 1922, Adrian had risen through the ranks to become a Director of the company. While he was still listed as director in 1923 (the same year that his father passed away) and in 1925 (the same year that his mother passed away), by 1927, the Electrical Engineers membership lists have him associated with the Windham Club, 13, St. James's Square.

Around the same time, Adrian was in the process of divorcing his first wife, Monica de Wilton Roche (née Thackwell) Burrows Simpson. [Monica later married Charles L. Wigan]. By the following year (1928), the divorce must have gone through for Adrian married Wanda Weiner (or Bychowetz) (born 28 November 1890) in the district of St. Martin, London.

That same year (1928), the British Oliver Typewriter Manufacturing Company was founded in England and one of the managing directors was Lt. Col. Adrian Francis Hugh Sibbald Simpson CMG, Royal Engineers of Wireless Pictures. Another managing director was Greville Richard Thursfield, of Igranic Electric, apparently an in-law of Adrian. [I have not been able to confirm that familial connection. It is not as simple as a sibling of Simpson marrying Thursfield.]

In 1930, the Electrical Engineers membership lists still had Simpson associated with the Windham Club at 13, St. James's Square, London. Again, the membership lists need to be taken with a grain of salt, for an article published in The Wireless and Gramophone Trader journal (7 June 1930) indicates that Adrian was still connected with Wireless Pictures, at least as a member of the firm's directors:

On 24 April, 1934, Adrian and his wife Wanda arrived at Southampton on the Asturias of the Royal Mail Lines Ltd. They gave their residential address as 1 Harriet Walk, Lowndes Street, London. Adrian was 53 years old and gave his occupation as "Colonel R.E. (ret)". Although the ship originated in Buenos Aires, it made several stops along the way: Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, Madeira, Lisbon, Vigo and Cherbourg. According to the ship's manifest, Adrian and Wanda boarded the ship in Vigo, Galicia, Spain. A 1935 London Directory lists Adrian [Lt. Col.] as living at 1 Harriet Walk (no mention of his wife).

Second World War
With the outbreak of war in early September 1939, the National Registration found Adrian and Wanda still living at 1 Harriet Walk, Lowndes Street, London. Their National Registration numbers were AFCN 110/1 [Adrian] and AFCN 110/2 [Wanda]. Wanda gave her occupation as "independent means" while Adrian was a "Lt. Col. R.E. attached General Staff". His information had a line drawn through it with a note to "see p. 14". That page simply lists his information again although his occupation is more difficult to decipher and almost looks like "attached W Central Staff". Adrian and Wanda had a cook and a "domestic" but no children.

Despite the fact that Adrian was a Lieutenant-Colonel (retired), it would appear that wartime ranks were slightly different. A Gazette notice from 11 June 1940 notes that the "undermentioned to be Lts":

A Gazette notice from 6 January 1941 notes that within the Intelligence Corps, "the undermentioned Lts. from Gen. List to be Lts. 15th July 1940, retaining their present seniority", followed by Adrian's name. It would therefore appear that although Adrian was a former Lieutenant-Colonel, his rank for the early years of the war was much lower.

The Coldspur blogs mentioned above have several references to Adrian's time with section B3 in MI5's B Division, which I will not repeat here. Interested readers are directed to those posts. Suffice to say that Adrian's time within the ranks of B division was not all that long. Tony Percy at Coldspur suggests that by early to mid-1940, Adrian had left the ranks of B division. A bit of digging, and a rather circuitous route confirms this information.

A scanned document from CAB 102/649 has information on Adrian on page 69. My sense is
that an OCR system was used to scan the document and had some trouble with the formatting of the
document. The scan may not be entirely accurate as a result:

...objections
also limited action in the Middle East before the Italian declaration
of war, but M.I. (R) was in the field early with plans for raising the
tribes in the Western Desert and in Abyssinia. Colonel Elphinston
visited the Middle East more than once in the latter part of 1939, and
eventually (in April 1940) Lt. Col. Adrian Simpson went out to form an
"M.I.(R) Section" in H.Q. Middle East (later known as G(R)). This was an
integral part of General Wavell's H.Q., and M.I.(R)...

Having never come across M.I. (R), I did a bit of research and came across this post in the WW2Talk Forum:

The
Military Intelligence (Research) (MI(R)) branch of the War Office was
responsible for irregular operations and GHQ Middle East Forces had
their own MI (R) initially commanded by Colonel Adrian Simpson. There
was much infighting between G(R) and G(Operations) branch over control
of units in the Middle East. G(R) branch was the controlling office for
the cloak and dagger operations in the area.

Interestingly,
Nigel West co-edited a book with Oleg Tsarev entitled Triplex: Secrets
from the Cambridge Spies. Part IV is entitled NKVD Reports and includes
Chapter 39 (Elena Modrzhinskaya's Report, April 1943) which has a brief reference to Adrian:

...British
intelligence created a special organisation to undertake espionage
operations in the Caucasus. According to an informant, this is the
Central Asian Bureau (an intelligence section set up among the staff of
the British Armed Forces Middle East). Its head is said to be Colonel
Adrian Simpson, who is based in Cairo.

Simpson was
posted to Cairo in 1940 and tasked with running sabotage operations in
the Caucasus to prevent oil being shipped to Germany...

One additional reference to Simpson comes from an article posted on an Italian site (apparently published 15 June 2002 in "Storia & Battaglie" (History & Battles)) which, with the questionable help of Google Translate, reads:

On June 29, 1940, at the suggestion of Col. Adrian Simpson, Major George A.D. Young, an engineer officer (Sapper) and former vice-commander of MIR (Military Intelligence Research) in the Middle East, formed the basis for the establishment of Commandos in the Middle East. Col. A. Simpson was one of the founders of MIR at the London War Cabinet along with Lt. Col. Joe Holland and Col. Sir Colin Gubbins, who would later become founder and head of SOE (Special Operations Executive).

The so-called "irregular" operations were then under the control and responsibility of MIR which was a section of the War Cabinet, but as the war theater was very large, an MIR was also created at the Cairo headquarters. The task of organizing "irregular operations" in the Middle East was given to Col. Simpson, who thus became responsible for the "Bodies formed by irregular native in the territories under the control of the Axis", and who, on 6 July, appointed as his deputy Captain Henry Fox-Davies (Durhan Light Infantry).

In 1934 [is this date a typo?], during the annual maneuvers, he [Simpson? or Fox-Davies?] had already proposed to his commander to destroy "the opposing brain", that is to strike the enemy command with a classic guerrilla operation.

This is how at the end of June 1940 the "LRDG" (Long Range Desert Group) was born under the control of MIR. Later in October [1940], the "Lybian Arab Force" (LAF) was formed under the command of Col. D.G. Bromilow and finally in August, October, November 1940 are formed respectively 50°, 51°, 52° Middle East Commando.[N.B. I've tried to clean up Google Translate's version a bit so that it reads slightly better]

All of this information suggests that Adrian had shifted away from being an advisor to B Division in early 1940 and become involved with Military Intelligence (Research) (M.I.(R)) and organized commando activities in the Middle East. A few other pieces of concrete information add a bit more to the picture.

A Gazette notice from 18 February 1943 notes that Major (Temporary Lieutenant-Colonel) Adrian Francis Hugh Sibbald Simpson C.M.G. (128956) Intelligence Corps (Ascot) was created an Officer (Military Division) of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE). According to National Archives records (WO 373/76/455), Simpson received the OBE for service during the period of 1941 to 1943 in the Middle East (Egypt & Libya) as part of the Intelligence Corps. Adrian is apparently mentioned in another Kew file (WO 201/2864) which deals with Intelligence Organisation: MI(R) Middle East.

A further Gazette notice from 1 December 1943 notes that:

War Subs. Major A.F.H.S. Simpson (128956) from Intelligence Corps was to be War Subs. Major.

This suggests that Adrian was transferred from the Intelligence Corps, but what became of him after that is a mystery.

After the War
There isn't a lot of information to flesh out Adrian's life after the war. We do know that on 3 October 1948, Adrian arrived in London onboard the Carthage, a ship of the P&O Steam Navigation Company Ltd. The ship had originated in Hong Kong but Adrian boarded in Port Said, Egypt. He gave his residence as 20 Chesham Place, London and his occupation as Retired Army Officer.

Another mention of Adrian is found on 19 February 1957, when he and his wife Wanda departed Liverpool aboard the Monte Arucas (Bahr Behrend & Co Ltd), destination Tenerife, Spain. The couple gave their address as 33 Chesham Place, London and Adrian was a retired army officer.

Adrian passed away on 2 October 1960 (80 years old) at Beaumont House, Beaumont Street, London. (Beaumont House had been rebuilt in the 1930s as a private hospital and after the war it became King Edward VII’s Hospital for Officers). Probate took place on 17 November to Wanda Simpson, widow, and Stanley Douglas Christopherson, Stockbroker. Adrian had effects valued at £73386 11s 8d.

There is no evidence that Adrian had any children by either of his two wives, although the census records would be the most helpful in that regard. The 1911 census lists Adrian and Monica living with a servant, but no children (they had been married four years at that point). The 1921 (and later) census records have yet to be released. The 1939 National Register has no children associated with Adrian and his second wife, Wanda.

Adrian Francis Hugh Sibbald Simpson had a most interesting life and it is a shame that his many contributions to the British war effort are not more well-known. I haven't found a single portrait of Simpson, nor any "official" write-up of this fascinating and decorated officer.

Robert Ashley Simpson - born 24 July 1864 in Darjeeling, Bengal. No
further solid information found. A Robert "Ashby" Simpson, born in India
around 1865 is listed at Wellington College (Berkshire) in the 1881
English Census (likely him). There is a Robert A. Simpson in the 1901
Scotland Census born around 1863 - would require further investigation. No death date found.

Percy Adolphus Simpson -
born 30 October 1866 in Bengal, married 20 November 1891 in Fyzabad,
Bengal to Jessie Mary Henrietta Margaret Paterson. By 1911 living in
Weybridge Surrey. Died December 1920 in Battle, Sussex. No children found.

Silvia
Mary Florence Simpson - born 1869 in Bengal India and baptised 17 June
1869 in Upton
Cum Chalvey, Buckingham. Married Captain William Gordon Renton
(1859-1908) on 23 June 1896 at St. Margaret's in Westminster, London.
They had one daughter, Sylvia Ethel Renton (1898-1977). In 1901, little
Sylvia Ethel was living with her father. Sylvia Ethel's parents, Silvia and William, divorced on
3 January 1905 (petition 5412) and Silvia passed away on 12 June 1905.
William passed away in 1908. In 1911, little Sylvia Ethel was living
with Renton relatives. In 1924, Sylvia Ethel Renton married Ivor Matthews Hedley (1892-1956) and they had at least one child, Rachel Mary Hedley (1924-1986). Rachel married Richard Edward Cecil Law, 8th Baron Ellenborough (1926-2013) in 1953 and the couple had three sons, one of whom is Rupert Edward Henry Law, 9th Baron Ellenborough. Rachel Mary was later known as Baroness Ellenborough.

Postscript
It came as a bit of a surprise, at the end of all this, to find that Adrian Simpson had a rather convoluted relationship to the story of Josef Jakobs!

One of the members of Josef's court-martial panel was Colonel Edward William Sturgis Balfour DSO OBE MC (Commander Scots Guards), the 9th Balfour of Balbirnie. Adrian's eldest sister, Agnes Frances Elizabeth Simpson married Alfred Granville Balfour. A coincidence of names? Apparently not. Referring to the Peerage we find that this connection:

Untapped Sources
Intelligence and National Security, Volume 32, 2017 - Issue 3: Military Intelligence during The First World War - p. 313-332 - ‘A shadowy entity’: M.I.1(b) and British Communications Intelligence, 1914–1922 by James Bruce [apparently mentions Adrian Simpson but online journal requires a subscription] Google Search lists the following preview snippet: "Since the opening months of the war Captain Adrian Simpson, ... and the War Office, both Room 40 and M.O.6(b) worked against the wireless .." Intriguing if anyone has a subscription to the online journal...

National Archives - WO 373/76/455 - file on Lt. Col. Adrian F.H.S. Simpson and his Middle East service that resulted in the award of the OBE.

National Archives - WO 106/1411 - cited in another book as containing a report from Adrian Simpson - given the similarity between the above PRO file number and this one, it could be a typo, although the 1411 file does contain correspondence from 1914-1915.

Book by Marina Soroka: Britain, Russia and the Road to the First World War: The Fateful Embassy of Count Aleksandr Benckendorff (1903-16); Routledge (2011). Reference is made on page 278 to footnote 247 which reads: "Adrian Simpson to Sir George Arthur, 06.11.1916, RA PS/PSO/GV/C/Q/995/2". This was viewed via Google Books which does not show all pages. The archival reference is unknown.